Arizona Democrats: SB 1070 harms people, economy

PHOENIX — Republican leaders in the Senate and House are allowing Arizona’s people and economy to suffer by refusing to hear two bills that would repeal SB 1070, a Democratic state lawmaker said Thursday.

“SB 1070 continues to be a black cloud over the state of Arizona, and it continues to haunt many members within the Latino community,” said Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix.

At a news conference, they criticized the Republican leadership of both houses.

“They want to sweep it under the rug and pretend it’s not there,” Gallardo said.

Calling SB 1070 a “tragedy,” Gonzales said the law has equipped police with the power to harass and profile individuals.

“Our community members face discrimination on a daily basis at work, at school, in the communities simply because we have brown skin,” she said.

Both bills would overturn SB 1070, which Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law in 2010. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected most of the law’s provisions but upheld giving local police the authority to check the immigration status of some suspects.

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, attended the press conference and later sparred verbally with Gallardo while speaking to reporters. He said repealing SB 1070 would harm legal Arizona workers.

“As soon as the economy picks up, unless we have a secure border, unless we have good internal enforcement, we’ll again have a tsunami of illegal immigrants who are going to depress the wages of legal workers in this country, who are going to take jobs from legal workers,” he said.